A Little Missing Piece

Coming soon: “Mung Beans Past the Stop”

This story: left-behind girl x broken puppy

In her first year of high school, a new tenant moved into the second floor of Li Jue's house, and a transfer student joined her class. His name was Yu Cheng.

From then on, she had a tagalong she couldn't shake. The convenience store at midnight, the heavy back seat of a bicycle, the little attic she took him up to, and the vast, dazzling fields of dragon-fruit lights in the distance.

Later, the tagalong transferred schools, taking her hair tie with him.

She was the one who persuaded him to leave. People from the city were never meant to stay long in a small town.

The day she urged him to go, they were in the same cramped, stuffy attic.

He asked her if she really meant it.

She lowered her head, unable to meet his eyes. After a long while, she answered, “It doesn't matter.”

The lemon-flavored Erbao candy didn't matter. The purple taro-roll hair tie didn't matter. And Li Jue from Dong Street mattered even less.

And so the second floor was empty, the back seat of the bicycle was empty, and the seat in the corner of the classroom was empty too. In just half a year, one school term, he became a transfer student at another school and a new tenant in another house.

Li Jue didn't miss him. She just thought, what a lousy deal, giving up her hair tie.

They met again at the start of university.

After two years without contact, they reunited without warning. He became the tagalong she couldn't shake once more, her hair tie hanging from his key card.

“Fancy seeing you again.”

“This time, I want to hear your real answer.”

A seemingly good girl who's secretly a delinquent x a seemingly delinquent boy who's actually a good kid

A shy boy's unrequited love finally comes true

Next novel: “Mung Beans Past the Stop”

Blurb:

Ye Pu is staying with relatives and doesn't mean to attend her cousin's birthday party.

Yet people keep bringing her up,

like the classmate who misunderstands who she is,

and Bai Yizhi, who steps in to help her out.

Ye Pu doesn't know much about Bai Yizhi. She only knows he's her cousin's friend and one of the top students in the science track.

Also, like her, he loves mung bean shaved ice.

Senior year is a chaotic rush. On the shady school road on Fridays, at the quiet bus stop, and in the bus that is sometimes crowded and sometimes spacious, she and he walk one after the other, neither crossing the line.

Until one day, the bus is delayed.

Beneath the banyan tree, he takes the initiative to approach her and hands her a bottle of hawthorn soda.

(Please add it to your favorites! I'm begging you!)

Theme: Stay true to yourself.